Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to two-way mobile communication devices and, more particularly, to a method and system for generating automatic address book entries containing caller specific voice identifiers, which may be substituted for the normal device notification mechanism.
Description of the Related Art
For persons and businesses requiring instant access to information, the Internet and Intranets have provided a vehicle for near real-time delivery of information from an enormous number of sources. For many of those same individuals, two-way mobile communication devices (e.g., cellular phones, two-way pagers, Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), and handheld computing devices) have provided a means for communicating irrespective of locality. It was only natural for these two exploding mediums to come together in a manner such that two-way mobile communication devices have become one of a plurality of entry vehicles into the Internet and Intranets.
The current generation of two-way mobile communication devices have microprocessors, information storage capability and they run software applications. A popular-type of software application resident on many of these devices is an electronic address book, which provides ready access to contact information of interest.
Generally, a user of such a device views the address book information on a compact display and navigates the information using keys in a phone keypad. If the user is involved in some other task, for example driving a motor vehicle, then the user must divert a percentage of his/her attention away from the task at hand (i.e., driving). A survey by the Insurance Research Council (IRC) found that 84% of surveyed drivers believe that just using a cellular phone while driving is a distraction that increases the likelihood of an accident. Using an address book under similar circumstances would be even more of a distraction.
Generally, the typical user interface associated with two-way mobile communication devices is not convenient for inputting long strings of alphanumeric characters. The input interfaces (e.g., a keypad) and display areas (e.g., an LCD) are small and not very efficient when compared to the input interfaces (e.g., a keyboard) and display areas (e.g., a monitor) of a personal computer.
Giving the user information relating to the identity of the caller would allow the user to better choose whether to answer the call or not. There are numerous automatic number identification (ANI) systems which provide the phone numbers and related information associated with incoming calls (e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 5,841,837 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,848,131). In these methodologies, the phone number is attached as a data field associated with the incoming call. The data field is extracted and displayed on an associated display screen. These methods require the user to look at the display screen to obtain the information, thereby taking their attention away from a collateral task (i.e., driving).
Thus there exists a need for a method and system for improving the efficiency and ease of interacting with a two-way mobile communications device and, more specifically, a method and system for interacting with and utilizing the information associated with an address book having voice augmented information.
In view of the above, it is one of the objects in the present invention to provide a method and system for facilitating the retrieval and utilization of automatic number identification (ANI) information and a personalized greeting from callers placing calls to serviced two-way mobile communication devices.
According to one aspect of the present invention, an address book resides in a memory of a mobile communications device and comprises entries, each pertaining to personalized greeting from a caller and related information (e.g., ANI information and/or user specified identifiers). Calls placed to a serviced device are intercepted and processed by a call manager. The call manager extracts the ANI information from the call and determines if the called mobile device has a previous address book entry for the caller. If it is determined that the caller does not have an address book entry, the caller is prompted to provide a personalized greeting, which is recorded and forwarded with the ANI information to an intermediate server device (also referred to as aproxy server device herein) associated with the called mobile device. Upon completion of the above described processing, the called and calling devices are connected (i.e., a voice communication channel is established). The proxy server device processes the received personalized audible greeting and associated information and forwards it to the destination mobile device through a data communications channel. If it is determined that there is a pre-existing address book entry, then the called and calling devices are connected without further processing.
According to another aspect of the present invention, the standard call notification mechanism (e.g., the ringer) is replaced with a personalized audible greeting stored in a resident address book. When a call is received, the associated ANI information is used to query the address book for related entries, and if a related entry is found, that entry replaces the devices standard call notification mechanism. If there are no related entries, then the standard call notification mechanism is used.
The advantages of the invention are numerous. Different embodiments or implementations may yield one or more of the following advantages. One advantage of the present invention is that address book entries having displayable and audible components are entered in a resident address book automatically. Another advantage is that the audible portion of the address book entry may be used to replace the standard phone notification thereby providing the user with information relating to the identity of the caller.
Other aspects and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, which illustrate by way of example, the principles of the invention.